Educate, Advocate, Never Discriminate

Hey everyone! It’s John with, iPittytheBull. We have been asked by PitbullInstagram and the Lovabull network to be a guest blogger for them. For those of you who don’t follow us on social media or read our blog, we promote responsible pet ownership and believe in 3 things which are to educate, advocate and never discriminate.

I took in my first “pit bull” in June of 2012. Her name was Penny Lane. She was about 6-7 months when she came to me and I hadn’t the first clue on how to handle her. She didn’t like men, was scared of children and any other random object that might be on the street. Being that she was a “pit bull” I knew she had to be the most well-mannered dog ever because of the stereotype that preceded her so I hired a trainer and I took classes on how to properly be a strong leader for her. And even after all that I knew it would not be enough for most people but I loved her and my desire for her to be confident far exceeded any negative thoughts people had on her. Since then I’ve expanded my family by adding a few more dogs named Elvis, Wally, Fletcher, Betty, Fawn, ChunkaRoo and pig named Snak Pak. And in between all that we have fostered over 60 animals in the past 2 years.

Social media has been an awesome outlet for us. It has allowed us to share our stories with everyone, give training tips on behavior, watch how a pig interacts with a pack of dogs and even allows us to share when things to don’t go so great. However, we are reaching an audience that already believes in us and promotes positive pit bull awareness.

Where I feel we need to make change is out in world where most people that don’t like our dogs and don’t have Instagram or Facebook. These are the people that still read the newspaper and watch the local news, which is where a lot of these negative stereotypes stem from. So my call to action for everyone reading this is what are YOU doing to change those people’s minds. What steps are you taking to make sure you have a balanced and social dog? And by social I don’t mean they need to go out to the dog park and play with every single dog they see but just being able to walk your dog in a calm state of mind. Because in my opinion, the best thing we can do to reverse these stereotypes is by having people see our dogs do absolutely nothing. To see them walk down the street with their head held high and a smile on their human’s face.

All my dogs have their own set of issues and so do I. But we work on them every day. I strive to be a better leader to my pack because having a dog is like having an 8 year old forever. My dogs will not grow up and move out of the house and provide for themselves. They need me to be there for them forever and because of that I’m always pushing myself to learn more and communicate better with my dogs. Because no matter how smart you think your dog is, they don’t understand English or whatever your language of choice is. They understand energy and they react accordingly.

So if you’re reading this it’s quite obvious you love your dog and the chances are pretty good you own a “pit bull” or a pit bull type dog. And if you do, you have heard the negative comments; you’ve seen the stares and felt the racism. And while this is happening, things like BSL are going on which is resulting in even more pitties being put down for no other reason than how they look. My mom always told me, “If it makes you mad, it means you care. And if you care enough, you will do something about it.” What are you going to do about it? What can you do outside of social media to promote positive pit bull awareness?

The only wrong answer is not answering at all.

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Thanks for following along with us! From time to time, I will be blogging about the importance of responsible Lovabull ownership here on the Lovabull blog. As part of this, it is incredibly important for me to network with and get to know you who are most passionate about advocating for our Lovabull friends. If you’d like to connect with me and see these blog posts first, find me in the Lovabull Community App by searching for and friending John Flores.